Writings on architecture, urbanism, and culture

Rubble

History of Design

Praise

"Urban design, it turns out, is as much about subtraction as addition. With matchless wit, Jeff Byles explores the American obsession with demolishing our architectural past. He’s the poet laureate of those unsung heroes: the 'unbuilders.'"
—Mike Davis, author of Dead Cities

January 2011

January 07, 2011

Among the discoveries of the small but stupendous new show of prints from midcentury architectural photographer Ezra Stoller—on view at New York's Yossi Milo Gallery—is this 1960 shot of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill's First National City Bank on the site of the future JFK airport in Queens. Like Mies landed on a midwestern prairie, the building still stands, though a far cry from the mirage-like miracle seen in Stoller's opulent lenswork.